"Not he," said the other shepherd, "he is too good a judge; but he
fastens on the haunches, and hamstrings him in a moment. O the
fear of the horse when he comes near the dwelling of the wolf. My
master was the other day riding in the despoblado, above the pass,
on his fine Andalusian steed, which had cost him five hundred
dollars; suddenly the horse stopped, and sweated and trembled like
a woman in the act of fainting; my master could not conceive the
reason, but presently he heard a squealing and growling in the
bushes, whereupon he fired off his gun and scared the wolves, who
scampered away; but he tells me, that the horse has not yet
recovered from his fright."
"Yet the mares know, occasionally, how to balk him," replied his
companion; "there is great craft and malice in mares, as there is
in all females; see them feeding in the campo with their young cria
about them; presently the alarm is given that the wolf is drawing
near; they start wildly and run about for a moment, but it is only
for a moment - amain they gather together, forming themselves into a
circle, in the centre of which they place the foals. Onward comes
the wolf, hoping to make his dinner on horse-flesh; he is mistaken,
however, the mares have balked him, and are as cunning as himself:
not a tail is to be seen - not a hinder quarter - but there stands
the whole troop, their fronts towards him ready to receive him, and
as he runs around them barking and howling, they rise successively
on their hind legs, ready to stamp him to the earth, should he
attempt to hurt their cria or themselves."
"Worse than the he-wolf," said the soldier, "is the female, for as
the senor pastor has well observed, there is more malice in women
than in males: to see one of these she-demons with a troop of the
males at her heels is truly surprising: where she turns, they
turn, and what she does that do they; for they appear bewitched,
and have no power but to imitate her actions. I was once
travelling with a comrade over the hills of Galicia, when we heard
a howl. 'Those are wolves,' said my companion, 'let us get out of
the way;' so we stepped from the path and ascended the side of the
hill a little way, to a terrace, where grew vines, after the manner
of Galicia: presently appeared a large grey she-wolf, deshonesta,
snapping and growling at a troop of demons, who followed close
behind, their tails uplifted, and their eyes like fire-brands.
What do you think the perverse brute did? Instead of keeping to
the path, she turned in the very direction in which we were; there
was now no remedy, so we stood still. I was the first upon the
terrace, and by me she passed so close that I felt her hair brush
against my legs; she, however, took no notice of me, but pushed on,
neither looking to the right nor left, and all the other wolves
trotted by me without offering the slightest injury or even so much
as looking at me.
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